Thanks for sharing your experience. Another tip for improving the green tea further is to refresh the tea leaves before brewing. I use an old Lin Ceramic tea refresher and "bake" the tea leaves until there is a faint sweetness aroma and let it rest and cool down before brewing it. Try it out.

Jbu2 for chaozhou brewing most of the time the kettle is a small clay kettle. Normally for this type of kettle, I gauge the temp of the water by touching the handle of the kettle and sense the vibration. I used to verify the temp with an infrared thermometer against the vibration and now can guess it quite accurately. Try it out.

Lin Ceramic tea refresher is out of production but I saw them ocassionally in some old shop in Malaysia and Taiwan. It is hard to get them. I saw and bought another design in Beijing tea wholesale centre but a bit too small to use comfortably.

When I travel, in case of emergency, when in someone's house, I ever tried using le Creuset cast iron pan to refresh the tea. It is risky as the tea leaves, especially the dust may burn. Have to do it in slow fire and very attentive with the smell to control the process. I tried using stainless steel pan but it is very hard to control the temperature.

In your case, maybe you can try with a small cast iron pan or a small clay pot with slow fire until you find the Lin Ceramic tea refresher. You must constantly shake the leaves to make them dance on the warm surface of the pan.

Refreshing tea is a great technique to increase the quality of the brew in many folds. I refresh the tea most of the time. It is tediuos and takes a lot of patience but I find the process peaceful and meditative. It is like having conversation with the tea. Haha Crazy me

I do this once in a while if there is no refresher in vicinity. It is a traditional way done for chaozhou tea ceremony. It is easier to bake with lighter tea like Yancha. The paper is folded in dimond shape before opening again to create structural support for the tea leaves. Cheers!

Jayaratna wrote:I tried my chaozhou stove with a kabusecha. Not the kind of tea you usually associate with boiling water.

It is as if with some kind of alchemic reaction boiling water permutates fragrances into flavours. The tea was thicker on the tongue, with a stronger taste, but much less sweetness and fragrance.

I liked it, it is just a different experience.

AM

You can let the tea cool down a bit (drink maybe after 30s or 1 min). This will allow the tea to breath ( oxidise) and it should be sweeter then.

In between brew, open the gaiwan cover to let the tea leaves breath too.

It is also important to pour out all water to stop the brewing in between. To do that after the first pour, place the gaiwan back on the tray, rotate180 degress and pour the remaining water out from the gaiwan. There should be some residue water out. The second pour to totally empty the gaiwan in between brew is one of the most important technique. If you don't do that, the brewing process will continue and in many cases astrigency and bitterness will surface in the following brew. The subsequent brew will be erractic because some tea leaves were sitting in the residue hot water and some are not.

You can let the tea cool down a bit (drink maybe after 30s or 1 min). This will allow the tea to breath ( oxidise) and it should be sweeter then.

In between brew, open the gaiwan cover to let the tea leaves breath too.

It is also important to pour out all water to stop the brewing in between. To do that after the first pour, place the gaiwan back on the tray, rotate180 degress and pour the remaining water out from the gaiwan. There should be some residue water out. The second pour to totally empty the gaiwan in between brew is one of the most important technique. If you don't do that, the brewing process will continue and in many cases astrigency and bitterness will surface in the following brew. The subsequent brew will be erractic because some tea leaves were sitting in the residue hot water and some are not.